Abbas: I will never recognize Israel as a Jewish State

Official PA TV aired an interview of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas originally broadcast on Sudanese TV during his visit to Sudan in July 2016

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “It is possible to sit around the negotiation table after we ask them what the meaning of a Jewish state is. I will recognize the State of Israel, I recognize the State of Israel, and that is it. However a Jewish state is not my affair. I will not recognize it at all and I will not accept it. In the past, in 1993, in mutual recognition between the late [Yasser] Arafat and [the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin, the one recognized the PLO and the other recognized the State of Israel, finished! When Israel made the peace agreement with Egypt it did not request of [Egypt] to recognize it as a Jewish state. When it made the Arava Agreement with Jordan (i.e., the Jordan peace agreement) it did not ask this of [Jordan]. Why is it asking us to recognize it as a Jewish state? Go to the [UN] General Assembly and change your name. If you wanted to change it, change your name. However, [if] you ask me, I will not accept and it is impossible that I will accept [the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state]. Let [Israel] continue to talk about a Jewish state and we will soundly reject it.”